YouTube plans new version of 'YouTube Kids' app

This will be a whitelisted variant of its existing YouTube Kids app and is a way to help parents and children avoid questionable content. Instead, it will only suggest videos approved by a team of human curators at YouTube. Content creators would post videos of what looked like child-friendly characters like Dora the Explorer or Peppa Pig, and then show them performing harmful or disturbing actions. The older, algorithm-powered version of the app will continue to exist as well; the human-curated release will complement it, offering parents an alternative. With the new version, Google is going to manually approve content for kids.

By giving parents the option to turn off the algorithmically recommended videos, the new "YouTube Kids" plans to curb conspiracy theory videossuch as sexually explicit language, profanity and paedophilia jokes that were surfacing on the channel previously.

YouTube has made a number of efforts in order to ensure kid-friendly videos, as well as to combat misinformation. According to a report from Business Insider last month, the YouTube Kids app was suggesting videos that were unsuitable for kids. However, it also said at the time that it will work on improving the app. The app which is built to provide a safer online experience to the kids while watching videos on YouTube is showing them controversial videos that they otherwise shouldn't watch.

This has yet to be officially announced by YouTube, but BuzzFeed News reports it's heard details from a source close to the company. We'll see what happens on this front in the next few weeks. However, Android Police hopes the non-algorithmic version would be the default option between the two since the algorithmic one fails to screen creepy content.